Fact Check: From Fake Iraqi Car Blast Video To Dogs Martyred In Pulawama Attack

In the wake of the deadly Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that claimed the lives of as many as 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans, the fake news menace is on the rise. With emotions running high, miscreants are sharing several fake news on the internet, misleading people.

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Fake news about sniffer dogs dying in the Pulwama terror attack

A post viral on social media claims that 13 sniffer dogs also lost their lives in the Pulwama attack along with the jawans, reported The Quint.

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While we mourn the martyrdom of our soldiers but among them we forgot them also!! The 13 sniffer dogs who got martyrdom. RIP silent soldiers. @narendramodi @HMOIndia @majorgauravarya @TajinderBagga @adgpi @AskAnshul @crpfindia pic.twitter.com/MI2P7LIshE

— Achinta Bhattacharje (@achintabhatt89) February 16, 2019

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However, a CPRF official later confirmed that the claim is false and that no sniffer dog has died in the attack. “There were no sniffer dogs, this is fake news. The convoy was transporting only jawans,” the official said.

The original post by one Anshuu S Vaswani has now been deleted.

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Old Iraq video being circulated as Pulwama attack clip

While no footage of the Pulwama attack has surfaced yet, Facebook and WhatsApp are platforms across with some old videos of car bomb attack in Iraq and Syria are being circulated.

Every time one searches on the internet with the keywords ‘CCTC Footage Pulwama Terror Attack’, an old video of a huge blast probably during one vehicle ramming into another on some highway can be found.

Observing the video carefully, it is clear that the terrain in the video is not like that in Kashmir. During the actual attack, it is said that a convoy of 70 vehicles was moving together, which in the video no convoy can be seen at all, reported News18.

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This video has been about 48,000 times and shared over 900 times by far. It was shared by the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KamauPuttMaapyaDe/. The video is being attributed to the Pulwama attack by Facebook and Twitter users.

It was revealed that the video is 10 years old and from Iraq, and was uploaded on the internet with the title “truck bomb” on March 5, 2008. The same was revealed after a Google Reverser Image search was performed after some key frames were taken out from the video.

In another similar post, another car bomb explosion video at a checkpoint near the Turkish-Syrian border is being shared as a CCTV clip of the Pulwama attack, reported Boom Live. This video was posted on February 12, a couple of days before the Pulwama terror attack.

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#Çobanbey girişindeki askeri inzibat (Şurta) teşkilatı kontrol noktası yakınlarında bomba yüklü araç patladı.

Detaylar gelecek.. pic.twitter.com/6PXSAreg3R

— Hüseyin Bozan (@huseyinbozan) February 12, 2019

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Mumbai mock security drill clip shared as that of a foiled terror attempt

The video of a mock security drill that was conducted on February 14 by local police, Riot Control Police (RCP) and Quick Response Team (QRT) in the Virar locality of Mumbai was being shared as a video of a foiled terror attempt.

Even though the video caption did not really refer to the Pulwama attack, it created panic and confusion as it was shared on the same day that the attack took place.

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Image of an old helicopter crash victim linked falsely to Pulwama terror attack

A photograph from a helicopter crash in Tawang in 2017, showing a charred body surrounded by military personnel, was shared as a picture from the site of the Pulwama attack.

The photo was shared with a Hindi caption that read, “Yet again today, a mother’s heart has wailed. Yet again today, a lover has lost her beloved”.

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Doctored image of Rahul Gandhi and Pulwama car bomber standing together

A false image of Rahul Gandhi standing with Pulwama car bomber Adil Ahmed Dar that was being circulated, claiming that both of them are close aides.

The original photo, however, is from a 2014 Lok Sabha campaign in Uttar Pradesh, and clearly the man standing beside Gandhi is not Dar. The Facebook post, however, is no longer available on Facebook.

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Other fake news being circulated

An old photograph of Pakistani army personnel beating a man is surfacing as Indian Army flogging a terrorist they caught in connection with the Pulwama attack.

An old video of a 2018 Kashmir military encounter is being circulated as Indian Army fighting back after the Pulwama attack

Further, a six-year-old old video falsely shows Narendra Modi calling the wife of a jawan who died in the Pulwama attack, whereas he was actually talking to the wife of a Gopalgunj native, who died in a Patna bomb blast.

A video that is being circulated as Kashmiris being beaten up following the Pulwama attack is actually that of a brawl in Delhi that took place during a wedding reception.

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The photo of a certain Russian soldier is being shared, claiming that it is an injured soldier of the Indian army involved in the Pulwama attack.

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CPRF warns against circulation of fake photographs

On Sunday, January 17, people were cautioned by the CPRF against fake pictures of body parts of martyred soldiers being circulated on the internet, an urged that such content be reported by sending an e-mail at [email protected]

According to officials, several photographs of mutilated bodies were being circulated and an advisory was issued after force officials got to know about the issue.

https://twitter.com/crpfindia/status/1097039223012708352

Another advisory was issued against the parliamentary force, which has deployed as part of 61 battalions in Jammu and Kashmir around 65,000 personnel, on false messages that are being circulated on the internet related to Kashmiri students across various parts of the country, reported NDTV.

https://twitter.com/crpfindia/status/1097073158551674881

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The Logical Indian take

As citizens of the country, we have a certain responsibility. While trolls and parody accounts have taken the responsibility upon themselves to share as much false information as possible, it is our responsibility to differentiate between what is true and what isn’t, while making others aware about the issue too.

Creating or sharing fake news is never justified. We have a responsibility to verify everything that we post on the internet. To ensure that our national debate is healthy and well-informed, each and every one of us has a responsibility of treating what we read with a pinch of salt, a spoonful of doubt, and a flood of research.

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Also Read: Fact Check: No, Priyanka Gandhi Was Not Laughing At Press Conference Addressing Pulwama Incident